Aaron Weiss

algorithm updates

What If Search Engines Didn’t Exist?

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If search engines did not exist, how would you update and market your website?

Would you develop a site that was engaging and portrayed your business’s uniqueness? Would you link to resources that provided value to your visitors? Would you request other websites to link to you when it was reasonable to do so?

Would you overuse a keyword phrase, guest post like mad, going to sleeping worrying about rankings, strive to find every available trick, start microsites linking to your main website, and buy expired domains with third-party domain authority signals?

The difference between the tactics in 2nd and 3rd paragraph and is the inherent desperation in the 3rd.

The 2nd paragraph shows a strategy that has clearly created equity by building a website that focuses on a business’s natural goal: building trust to capture a visitor’s business or attention. In short, if all other business operations are about building and maintaining equity. If a search engine didn’t exist, would still you strive to build equity for your website?

Algorithm Updates

After reading Search Engine Land’s most recent blog post about the March 12th Google Core update I remind myself of the importance of creating websites with SEO campaigns that focus on longevity rather than quick gains. That blog post shows example after example of SEOs describing their gains and losses as if they were frantic day-traders. I recognize that many of these people are running businesses that are their livelihoods, but their efforts and time are wasted and their livelihoods are at risk because an application they have absolutely no control over changed overnight.

That’s a terrible way to run a business.

Make Decisions That Help You Sleep At Night

I’ve made my fair share of mistakes, and I’ve come to learn that the decisions I make the help me sleep at night are the the best decisions. Prior to many of the modern algorithm updates during the 2010s, I spent plenty of time gathering endless links, writing drivel, and cramming keywords wherever I could because that was known to work.

With the release of Panda and then Penguin, I began to recognize that work I had performed was antithesis to the spirit of the internet. Once I recognized that an entire industry of link directories and article directories was nothing but an incestuous house of cards once algorithms were updated, I began to see the need to build ever-lasting website.

I began to learn more about these algorithms, particularly with my 2015 blog post “A Trip Through the Google Zoo“, and I began to get a better sense of Google’s intentions. To build a user-friendly, trustable search engine.

Too often have I worked with businesses who have relied on outdated techniques, spam, and awful link building practices to name a few. The lack of transparency and even SEO companies admitting they cannot guarantee rankings has made the industry look foolish to the point even lobbying organizations are starting to look into cracking-down on snake-oil SEO companies. And I’m happy about it!

Maintaining Realistic Expectations

You don’t have to be #1 to be #1. Meaning: being first for a keyword, all it’s variances, across all devices, regions, and demographics is impossible.

If you can’t make sense of a new SEO trick others are touting, it’s probably not a “trick,” it’s a risk.

Even If You Do the Right Thing You Can Still Get Hit

That’s true about anything. Finances, love, driving. Risk is risk no matter how many preventative measures you take.

However, I suspect that the sinking feeling you may have seeing your rankings fall when you do the right thing is more honorable than the feeling you’ll have knowing you flew too close to the sun.

If you’ve built a website that focused on the user, you didn’t do anything wrong. In fact, keep going. If an algorithm update devastates your rankings, an algorithm update can also boost them too if you focus on user value and growth. I’m not always that optimistic, but I strongly believe that after being in the SEO business for over a decade.

Conclusion

Ultimately, SEO is about finding untapped value of searches for your industry, developing content that drives value to your unique business, and expressing that value before, during, and after the website experience.

Therefore, at all times, regardless of the algorithm

Do

  • Develop a long-term SEO plan
  • Maintain realistic expectations
  • Stay the course
  • Continue to build website equity

Don’t

  • Worry about algorithm updates
  • Believe all SEO hype
  • Sacrifice your values or ethics

SEO Research Articles May Not Be What They Seem

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Have you read a new article showing new SEO research about why and how a new SEO strategy or trick can boost your rankings? Might want to re-consider those results and conclusions.

SEO is not an exact science. Search engines are applications developed by humans with a monetary profit motive, and therefore, cannot truly be a viable platform for subjective tests. This post will describe why many articles about studies and tests regarding SEO may not be what they seem.

To clarify, this article will not be shitting on keyword research, competitor analysis, link analysis, and other research that is performed for SEO campaigns and strategies. Instead, this article describe why those who are sharing a new “trick,” maybe either be disingenuous or out-right wrong. To double-down on my thesis: You should even be mindful of what you read on this website. I too could be wrong.

Lots of “SEO Research” is Anecdotal Evidence

Deep within the thinly veiled spam, the Black Hat World community will occasionally have an article describing how a user was able to boost their website’s rankings with various tricks. You could replace that forum with many others or any other dime-a-dozen SEO agencies out there. The issue with articles like these are the motives behind these posts are suspect.

First, there is no honor among thieves. I’m not going to say that all users publishing their findings have ill intentions. However, your vibe attracts your tribe. I have little trust in any community that boasts itself has a black hat or even a black-hack collective.

“Evidence” can also be manufactured. Are these users willing to provide access to their analytics and data? Can it be replicated? I’ll get into that more later.

Lastly, these results can be fleeting and short-term. Search engine algorithms are updated constantly, and the technologies behind them evolve.

Scientific Method Is Inapplicable to SEO Research

In order for one to make a conclusion regarding an observation, the test should be have a process that can be replicated. In short, the age-old Scientific Method would need to be applied:

The scientific method is an empirical method of acquiring knowledge that has characterized the development of science since at least the 17th century. It involves careful observation, applying rigorous skepticism about what is observed, given that cognitive assumptions can distort how one interprets the observation. It involves formulating hypotheses, via induction, based on such observations; experimental and measurement-based testing of deductions drawn from the hypotheses; and refinement (or elimination) of the hypotheses based on the experimental findings. These are principles of the scientific method, as distinguished from a definitive series of steps applicable to all scientific enterprises.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_method

Since duplicate websites are already considered low-quality, that immediately rules out SEO research.

Additionally, algorithms have updates with minor and major changes throughout the year, both announced and unannounced. This makes it nearly impossible to produce a controlled environment.

Different Industries Have Different SERPs

Ask Google a question about “the best pizza near me” and “what’s this thing on my foot”, the search engine result pages (SERP) will look vastly different. In short, what works for a Dentistry website looking to improve their visibility will differ from a beauty blogger.

Consider your industry and the intent of the user. SEO “tricks” that worked for one industry are not always viable for your industry.

User Experience

User intent, personalization, and localization are factors. Whether the user is logged into the search engine’s platform, searched for the query before, and where they are located geographically all have factors on a what is displayed in a SERP.

This is where search gets tricky, a website owner might feel as if their efforts are geared toward how the results appear on their own computer.

A search for “the best Pizza near me” will ideally give the user in Tampa, Florida a result closer to Tampa, Florida, than, say, Chicago. However, a search for “best Chicago style pizza near me” from someone in a North Tampa should ideally provide a narrower search as the amount of pizza stores diminish as you move further away from Tampa’s downtown. Although, I’d like to think such a search would lead to a 404 – file not found error – because Chicago-style pizza is trash.

Conclusion

The common advice is pretty simple: be careful what you read. Information is widely available, but just as widely inaccurate.

Foundational SEO strategies such as optimizing meta descriptions, page titles, writing unique and emotion-rich content with keywords, are among the most important aspects.

If you’re ever unsure about an article, pay attention to the urgency of their writing. A wise writer will be cautious and disclose caveats to their process. A fool will make groundless observations.